„The panda.” That’s how he talks about himself. But underneath the strapped-on fur, he’s Julien Villeneuve, a professor of philosophy at a post-secondary college. He’s been anonymous until this week, when he revealed his identity in the course of filing a legal action in Montreal courts to protect the right to protest.

Villeneuve originally came out to support the student protestors before the passage of Bill 78 and before he became Anarchopanda. He first went as part of a group of professors called Profs contres les hausses. “We wore vests that identified us as professors and when the police charged, we’d go on the front line with the students, between them and riot cops.” But as the protests wore on, and the anti-protest law was passed, the group began to dissolve.

“A lot of professors were injured, and some couldn’t take it psychologically night after night,” he said. “At the end, there wasn’t a whole lot of people left and it was starting to look pretty silly. So I decided to sort of do it on my own, and to do it this time as the panda, and see what happened. My primary role is still to be there with the students when they get aggressed by the police.”